Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-08-25

ture and the national road are under
stood and appreciated So far as Mr.
MeKelyey is concerned. while no
Especially championing his nomina
tion, the statement is due that, /
nominated and elected to the Legisla'
ture, he will go there without any en
tangling alliances with anybody or any
Iinterest-an untrammeled and a very
bright man.
! As 10 the national road: Some plan
should be devised to repair and put i
ID good condition Built by the nation
al government, it was very Appiar
Way-a broad highway, go solid tha
vehicles could roll over it as easily and
rapidly when the earth was soaked will
water as in the driest seasOn-tht
streams crossed by it spanned by ele
CANT and substantial stone bridges, anC
all the culverts substantially built o.
stone. Such was its condition wheI
transferred to the state by the aationa
government. With the transfer there
was the stipulation that the state should
forever keep it in like good repair, thai
it might collect tolls for vehicles and
stock passing over it, but that the mail:
and military transports of the Unitet
States should forever pass over it free
This was the work of HENRY CLAY ,and
it is the noblest monument to his mem
cry.
How has the state treated this great
gift? Reaching clear across the state
from east to west, il did more to devel'
ope and settle and enrich the state than
any public work ever constructed with
in its borders. Yet. scarcely ten years
after its acceptance from the national
government with the solemn guarantee
that it would keep it in like good repair
it was leased to Doyle, Foster & Co, who
turned it over to the state at the expi>
ration of their lease in a greatly dam+
aged condition, and then the state not
only made no appropriations for its re
pair, but actually diverted its tolls to
other purposes than the repair of the
road. Time and again were raids made
upon its revenues in the days when they
were large. In the city of Zanesville
was an old worn-out toll bridge over
the Muskingum river. The state bought
it and paid for it (S2O,OOO) out of the
national road fund. The rObberies went
on, and in the meantime the state was
covered with network of railways, and
it was no longer the great highway of
travel and commerce across the state
After the war closed, Sherman's army
trains passed over it, and it suffered
very greatly from that. Then, when it
could be no longer MIXED, the state
turned it over, almost wornOut, to the
counties.
Belmont and other counties along the
line of the road helped 10 build the ca
nails of the state, and they pay taxes to
keep them in repair. after the railroads
have SO crippled them that they are NO
longer self-suStaining. This county
and some of the other counties along
the national road have no ether inter
est in the canals than the fact that they
act as check, to some extent. upon the
railroads in the matter of freights. Wei
are in favor of maintaining them. bat
we insist that the state owes duty to
the Rational road, AS wal, and that it
shall not longer turn aside from it. The
directly interested in 1t should
cry out against its iniquitous treatment
by the state with one voice, and should |
never cease their demands until the
state has, at least, restored to it the |
moneys wrongfully taken from it. Why
should not the state, in a measure, ex> |
tend to it that fostering care that it |
gives the canals? 1t is a great public
work, given to the state when it was
poor and weak; why should it abandon
it when il is great and strong? To the
farmers of this county it is more impor-
tant than either of the lines of rail way |
running through the county; and it was
this county that was especially wrUnged
by the Doyle, Foster & Co. lease, the
GAINESVILLE bridge purchase. and like
robberies of the roads revenues.
Some decided steps should he taken
TO right this wrong. When the repre>
of the county in the Senate
and House give it their attention, and |
leave the fisheries dispute and like mat
ters to Congress, they may do their con- !!
stituents some service, and the people
will appreciate it. 1t is in such matters
they are Interested, while they are con
cerned very little about who catches the
mackerel. or where they are caught. In
ternal Improvement was good old Whig
doctrine, and it ought to be good Repub-
lican and good Democratic doctrine to
take care of the public works built by
our forefathers
IT is given out that the SO-calledi |